Any implementation of a quantum computer will require the ability to reset qubits to a pure input state, both to start the computation and more importantly to implement fault-tolerant operations. Even if we cannot reset to a perfectly pure state, heat-bath algorithmic cooling provides a method of purifying mixed states. By combining the ability to pump entropy out of the system through a controllable interaction with a heat bath and coherent control of the qubits, we are able to cool a subset of the qubits far below the heat bath temperature. Here we show an implementation of this cooling in a solid state NMR quantum information processor which offers high fidelity control of the qubit system and controllable access to a heat bath. We demonstrate an implementation of multiple rounds of heat-bath algorithmic cooling on three qubits and discuss the improvements in control techniques which have allowed us to show the purification of a single qubit to one and a half times the heat bath polarization.
In this study, we are interested in the practical question of how many times a quantum directional reference frame (i.e., a spin-J system) can be used to perform a certain task with a given probability of success, under the assumption that the quantum directional reference frame evolves under a map that is covariant under rotations in SU(2). Our main theorem restricts the form of the state of the quantum reference frame as a function of how many times the covariant map was applied to it. Our results are a generalization of the paper of Bartlett el al. on the degradation of reference frames, and can be used to analyze certain types of interactions on a spin-J system.
Current physical implementations of quantum key distribution (QKD) require communicating parties to be close together. We will explore methods for allowing parties separated by long distances to communicate by combining many QKD links in a network and discuss the resulting security properties.
Previous experiments on the production of entangled photon pairs directly in optical fiber via four-wave mixing (FWM) have used a single pump laser and produced signal and idler photons with similar wavelengths. We will present the first results of our investigation into the production of widely separated entangled photon pairs via FWM in optical fiber using multiple pump lasers also at widely separated wavelengths. This source will have important applications in quantum cryptography and computation. As fiber optic and free space quantum communication networks require photons at different wavelengths (1550 nm and around 800 respectively) this source will make hybrid quantum cryptography networks achievable and could also be used as a heralded optical fiber source of single photons.
"Distributed phase reference schemes are a new class of protocols for Quantum Key Distribution, in which the quantum signals have overall phase-relationships to each other. This is expected to protect against some loss-related attacks. However, proving the full security of these schemes is a new challenge for theorists, as one can no longer identify individual signals (such as qubits in BB84, for instance), and so the security proof techniques do not apply directly.In this talk I will present two such protocols (the Differential Phase Shift and the Coherent One Way protocols). Their ""unconditionnal security"" has not been proven yet, but I will present some specific attacks on these schemes, which give us upper bounds for the security, as well as a ""feeling"" on how these schemes should perform."
Many authors have proposed what are known as "phase-space" or "classical" representations of quantum mechanics. A unifying framework is given which illustrates the relationship among these various theories. Examples relevant to quantum computing will be given.
The one-way measurement model is a model of quantum computation which is intriguing for its' potential as a means of implementing quantum computers, but also for theoretical purposes for the different way in which it allows quantum operations to be described. Instead of a sequence of unitary gates on an array of ``wires'', operations are described in terms of emph{patterns}, consisting of a graph of entanglement relations on a set of qubits, together with a collection of measurement angles for these qubits (except possibly for a subset which will support a final quantum state). In this introductory talk, I describe the relationship between patterns in the one-way measurement model to quantum circuits, and explore patterns which represent unitary operations but which emph{don't} have direct analogues in the circuit model.
In this presentation I will briefly explain the cluster state model of quantum computing. Then will talk about a scheme that uses polarization and time-bin degrees of freedom of photons in optical fibres for the optical realization of this model. We are currently working on the implementation of this scheme in our lab.
Quantum coin tossing is a cryptographic task in which two parties, Alice and Bob, wish to generate a shared random bit but do not necessarily trust each other. This task is completely impossible to realize with classical asynchronous communication but becomes at least partially feasible when quantum communication is also available. The best quantum protocol known so far, due to Ambainis, uses qutrits and is near optimal in the sense that either party can bias the outcome with at most a 75% probability of success. However, when the transmission of the link is below 50%, Ambainis' protocol can be easily broken by a cheating Bob. This problem arises whenever there exists a conclusive measurement allowing Bob to obtain with certainty, although with a probability less than one, relevant information about the state sent by Alice. In this talk, we will present a new protocol for quantum coin tossing that does not suffer from this weakness and, as a consequence, is loss-tolerant. We discuss possible attacks and argue that the protocol is secure. Technologically, the implementation of this protocol is no more difficult than implementing entangled quantum key distribution with qubits. This is joint work with Guido Berlin, Gilles Brassard and Nicolas Godbout.
The notion of weak-degradability of quantum channels is introduced by generalizing the degradability definition given by Devetak and Shor. Exploiting the unitary equivalence with beam-splitter/amplifier channels we then prove that a large class of one-mode Bosonic Gaussian channels are either weakly degradable or anti-degradable. In the latter case this implies that their quantum capacity Q is null. In the former case instead, this allows us to establish the additivity of the coherent information for those maps which admit unitary representation with single-mode pure environment.